I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Republican Party operatives from Texas have been training Albuquerque tea party activists as poll challengers for more than two weeks, GOP officials told The Independent Wednesday evening. The Democrats are training challengers of their own. But such “ballot security” efforts do more harm than good, a new study suggests, rarely catching fraudulent voting but frequently discouraging legitimate voters from casting ballots.
The last opportunity for New Mexicans to register to vote is tomorrow, October 5. And beginning tomorrow, voters can go to their county clerk’s office, request an absentee ballot, and vote on the spot.
In anticipation of the next phase of…
Stephanie DuBois has worked as a dog trainer, bookkeeper and waitress, and managed the Deming Chamber of Commerce for three years. Outgoing Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is a former legislator who has overseen the state Land Office for the past eight years. The two are competing for a seat on New Mexico’s most powerful regulatory agency, the Public Regulation Commission. And each has a different vision on how the agency should be run.
For four years Gov. Bill Richardson and state lawmakers have wrestled over how to set up a state ethics commission, who would sit on it and who would appoint them. That an agreement has proved elusive is an understatement; the concept has proved deeply unpopular at the Capitol.
Democrat Diane Denish says she’ll appoint an independent ethics commission “on day one.” But Republican Susana Martinez says an ethics commission would amount to nothing more than window dressing.
As NMI reported, the federal government has launched a major transparency initiative and will be putting heaps of information online for citizens and journalists to rake through. And in New Mexico, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government has given out a series of transparency awards. So what more can New Mexico state and local governments, businesses and others do to be more transparent? Our panelists weigh in.
Last week, embattled Secretary of State Mary Herrera named Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo to be the state elections director. But former elections director A.J. Salazar has contended that Trujillo is one of the “elements of corruption” in the SOS office. Should Don Francisco Trujillo serve as state elections director? Our panelists weigh in with their opinions.
Under the proposal creating a State Ethics Commission a person filing a complaint and then going public could face a $26,000 fine and a year in jail. A public official, on the other hand, found to have violated the public trust would face a censure or public reprimand. The House voted 49 to 15 to pass an ethics commission bill after a relatively short debate in which Democrats swatted away several amendments from Republicans to strengthen the bill.
A person filing an ethics complaint and then going public would face much harsher penalties than a public official found to have violated the public trust under a State Ethics Commission proposal the Senate Finance Committee passed Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Jan. 27, The New Mexico Independent will host the second in a series of Legislature-related events at Rio Chama Steakhouse in Santa Fe. We’ll begin shortly after 6 p.m. with refreshments (the food is free, the booze…
At least one state lawmaker who has been involved in attempts to reform the State Land Office is questioning whether an assistant commissioner’s disclosure of a conflict of interest on a 2003 form was sufficient. Several others say the state’s disclosure laws are in need of reform.
What’s the old line? Be careful what you ask for.
That thought must have crossed Gov. Bill Richardson‘s mind Thursday. His staff called a news conference at the Capitol to showcase the governor signing two ethics reform bills. One…
Legislation that would cap — for the first time — the amount that financial contributors could give to New Mexico political candidates and elected officials easily cleared a Senate committee considered by some as wary of such measures.
